August 1, 2017
Shaping Our Future
Today is my first official day as your Associate Director for Cooperative Extension. I am honored to have this opportunity, and I look forward to engaging in the work that accompanies this honor and responsibility. Whenever change occurs, we often wish for one of those mythical crystal balls to determine what the future holds. I, too, sometimes wish for a crystal ball, a Magical 8 Ball, or the power of omniscience. Such wishing, however, is fruitless, as none of these exist.
Nevertheless, life now and in the future is not a random walk. Leadership and management guru Peter Drucker once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” This is the approach to the future that we will use, and we will begin by having conversations about our future. These conversations will be about how we can better serve the people we serve. To that end, we will discuss who we are. We will determine what we should start doing, stop doing and keep doing. We will discuss how we do things. We will shape our future.
Who are the “we” I refer to? The “we” I refer to is extremely inclusive. Over the next few months, you and your fellow Extension professionals will be engaged in these discussions. Remember, my definition of Extension professional is anyone who is paid to work for the Cooperative Extension arm of K-State Research and Extension – regardless of position title. Our Extension councils, boards, State Extension Advisory Committee members, and other volunteers will be engaged. We will have conversations with our external stakeholder partners and non-partners. More importantly, we will have discussions with the public we serve, both Extension users and non-users alike. All of these conversations will serve as the foundation for what we will become in the future.
The conversations will occur over the next months. They will be held in local units, on campus, at our regional centers and offices, and via technology. The scheduling process has already begun, but it is far from complete. Between now and the discussion you attend, I ask that you think about the people we serve, your profession, and K-State Research and Extension and think about how we should shape our future. When you attend one of the discussions, I ask for you to engage in shaping our future!